Court upholds KPMG audit in Dei Biopharma loan dispute

The Commercial Court in Kampala has dismissed Mathias Magoola’s application to stop KPMG from auditing the disputed bank loans tied to Dei Biopharma Ltd and DEI Industries International Ltd. Justice Suzan Abinyo upheld the appointment made through the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda, keeping the independent audit process in place.

The ruling preserves a court-directed review of a loan fight with Equity Bank Uganda that has been described as worth about Shs242 billion, while another account put the figure at UGX243 billion. A court order issued on 10 December 2024 had already appointed KPMG auditors to carry out a comprehensive audit of the disputed facilities, and the latest decision left that mandate intact.

For KPMG, the case is a useful reminder that audit appointments in high-stakes disputes are not just technical assignments. In a fight involving a lender, a borrower group, and a professional body such as ICPAU, the credibility of the auditor depends on the court’s willingness to hold the line when one side tries to derail the process. That is especially important in Uganda’s commercial litigation environment, where a disputed audit can become as sensitive as the underlying loan itself.

The decision also raises the stakes for the firm’s risk, governance and reputation teams. When a court backs an auditor named through an independent professional body, it reinforces the value of third-party appointment processes over party-led preferences. For KPMG partners and staff handling contentious engagements, the message is that independence has to be documented, defended and visible from the first appointment letter through the final report.

The dispute had been framed publicly as a bid to block an independent audit into Dei Biopharma’s bank loans. By dismissing Magoola’s challenge, Abinyo kept the audit on track and preserved the court’s earlier decision to let KPMG examine the loans without the borrower side controlling the process.